Tuesday, November 18, 2014

November is
in full swing, and National Novel Writing Month, aka (hashtag) #NaNoWriMo, is back! The month has been too chock full of events for me to
jump in with quill flying (a novel in one month? Not me, not this time...) except by writing this blog post.

Rewind a
couple of weeks: my email inbox included a request from Bob Clary, Marketing Manager at Webucator.com, a
national training company offering online classes on a wide variety of topics. Bob asked
if I’d answer some questions as part of Webucator’s “Tips for Writers” NaNo
series, and post them on my blog.

After a
dry blog spell, I was ready to warm up my quill again - so thank you, Bob, for the questions. Hopefully some of you NaNo ninjas will find a helpful hint or two.

Keep working your NaNo magic!

•What were your goals when you
started writing?

It's all Maurice's fault...

Initially, none. From word go I loved
writing at school, but it never occurred to me I could be an author. As a teen, I
veered toward pop music, and writing songs eventually became my career. Before
that took off, though, I was an assistant teacher in an elementary school,
which, thanks mainly to Maurice Sendak, planted the seed of wanting to write for children—initially picture
books, then novels. Over the years, that seed grew into a socking great tree
and insisted I pay attention to it. Even in seed form, I think I always wanted get published.

•What are your goals now?

Craft-wise, I'm always looking to hone my skills. Beyond that…More books out in the world! My
first children’s fantasy, The Flame in
the Mist, came out last year with Delacorte Press/Random House, and promo
has taken up so much time and energy that writing has been taking a back seat. So my plan
for 2015: reverse the seating arrangement; finish 2 middle grade novels I’m
working on; find an agent (so far, I haven’t had one). I’ll continue to do
local school visits, though– I love talking with kids about writing.

•What pays the bills now?

I still write songs -
a very uncertain income, though. You never know how much you’ll make from year to year. Fortunately my husband, who’s also a musician, did very well in the jingle business
when we lived in New York City, and savings from that time are supplementing
our income.

•Assuming writing doesn't pay the
bills, what motivates you to keep writing?

For me, it’s like reading a great
book: once a story hooks me, I can’t wait to get back to it. But although being
published is definitely a carrot, it’s not the reason to keep going. It’s the
stories themselves –the
characters and their predicaments – that won’t let me be.

• Lastly, what advice would you give
young authors hoping to make a career out of writing?

First, be yourself. Don’t follow
trends; they’ll be gone by the time you’re ready to publish. So write what you
love – and love what you write. You’ll need that love to keep you going through
tough parts of the journey, which there will inevitably be. Second, be patient
and persistent, both with the writing process (honing, revising, etc) and the
time it usually takes to get your first book published. Don’t give up in the
face of rejection. Use it to your advantage: keep honing, revising, work on
craft – and grow a thick skin. Remember, rejection isn’t personal! Every
published author has faced it. It’s the ones who keep going that break through.

Happy writing everyone, NaNoWriMo and beyond!

More authoring tips: For those curious about what Webucator has to offer, check out their 2 NaNoWriMo posts to date, here, and here.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

I thought that once The
Flame in the Mist’s debut year was over, my life would slip comfortably
back into inner journeys, through words and other worlds, including more
regular blogging. Wrong! 2014 has been busier than ever, with school
visits, festivals, conferences, library events . . . thousands of miles driven
between PA, NJ, NY, DE . . . not to mention a family visit to England, and a songwriting
trip to Belgium.

All perfect blog fodder. Yet nary a bloggish word I wrote,
and Blog slipped ever farther into the realms of prehistory. Winter came and
went. Likewise Spring. But now, teetering on summer, I
have news to share and celebrate!

The Flame in the Mist won an award.
An award! A Crystal Kite award!

Doesn't the award sticker look like a magical orb? What better image for Jemma and her
world? And the script matches her eyes and amulet perfectly!

I have huge tracts of time for the SCBWI, and I’ll explain
why, and how this award brings me full circle, making it especially gratifying
to receive. If you’re a children’s author of any ilk looking for inroads, perhaps
my story will also tell you why, if you’re not already a member, you should join.

The SCBWI is a fantastic resource worldwide. In the U.S., many
states have their own chapter that runs conferences and workshops that not only help kidlit authors navigate the business, but can also result in forging friendships that threaten to be lifelong.

Next tier of awesomeness: If you attend a conference, you
can, after the event, submit a query to any agent or editor there – yes, even
editors from the normally agent-submissions-only publishing houses.

But the icing on
the conference cake is the opportunity to meet and network with those pedastled
gatekeepers of kidlit, who actually turn out to be quite human. At some
conferences, you can even submit manuscript pages for a critique session with
an agent and/or editor. And if an editor from any publishing house – even those biggies – critiques
your pages and invites you to submit the whole manuscript . . . Icing on the
icing!

So it was with me and The Flame in the Mist. At the New Jersey chapter’s conference in
2010, I met an editor from Delacorte Press, et voila! You can read the whole story here,
on Kathy Temean’s blog.

As if all this wasn’t enough awesomeness, the SCBWI also runs
the Crystal Kite awards, the only peer-voted award in children's literature. Voting is divided between many regions worldwide, and members vote
for books released within the previous year, whose authors live in their region. I’m in the Atlantic Region,
consisting of PA, NJ, MD, DE, VA, West VA and DC. And to my gobsmacked elation. . .

. . . of 70 nominated books in my region, The Flame in the Mist won!

The award will probably be presented to me at my chapter’s next main
event in November. In the meantime, just last
Friday, I received the beautiful shiny award stickers. Tangible evidence! And of course, I love the way it looks on the book cover. A silver disc. It could almost be a symbol from my recording artiste days. . .

Discs, circles, mandalas. I’ve always loved them as a symbol. The
wheel of life. Completion. From the earliest, nervous critique
sessions I took part in at conferences, through query workshops, mentor sessions, the conference, and now, to winning this year’s Crystal Kite award. The SCBWI has brought me full circle.

Circles also imply continuation. As T.S. Eliot said, “We shall
not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive
where we started and know the place for the first time.” And yes, I’m about to set
off again. The next NJ SCBWI conference is coming up in 3 weeks, and I’ve signed up
for workshops on picture book writing. A new round of exploration. . .Who knows what will be next?

So there it is. If this can happen for me, it can happen for anyone. Aspiring kidlit authors: Join the SCBWI!

My heartfelt gratitude goes to Lin Oliver, executive director of the SCBWI, SCBWI president
Stephen Mooser, and to all the local chapter RAs who make things happen. The Flame in the Mist literally owes
its existence in the world to all of you. Thank you.

To download a FREE copy of the Common Core Annotated Educational Guide for The Flame in the Mist, click HERE. (It's currently being featured on the educator resource pages of the Random House website, where you can also download it, here.)

Saturday, January 11, 2014

I know, I’m
kind of late out of the gate with a New Year greeting. After a huge number of events last year (did you notice?), I took
an extended break over the holidays – a bit of grog here, some wassailing
there, punctuated with the odd party and quiet time catching up with The Hubby
(which I needed, and so did he). It’s taken me a while to creak back into gear.
. . but here I am!

Over the
holidays, I also spent some quality time with teetering pile of to-be-read
books and managed, ever so slightly, to shrink it. Since I’m officially a
bookish person, and this blog is officially attached to my bookish website, I’m
going to prattle on a bit about a YA book that I read just before the New Year: A MONSTER
CALLED by Patrick Ness, which I snagged from my local indie, the Doylestown Bookshop* just days before
the holidays.

Its title
was the first hook for me. (As you might guess from The Flame in the Mist, I’m not only a bookish person, but a
spookish one.) Then, its dark cover, moodily illustrated by Jim Kay, gave my creep-meter a
thrilling surge. Jim’s drawings grace the whole book, and are
fabulous – if you’re a fan of dark
and soul-stirring, which obviously I am. Reading the blurb on the back, which
starts, “The monster showed up after midnight. As they do”, and ends, “This
monster is…something ancient, something wild. And it wants the truth”, I was already reaching for my wallet. Both voice and content were instant grabbers. I had to read this book.

What's more, it's "the first ever to win both the Carnegie Medal for literature and the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration". Not that I needed to read that to be sold. High accolades to live up to, though – which it did.

Based on an
idea by Siobhan Dowd, who sadly passed away in 2007 at the age of 47 before she
could flesh it out, A MONSTER CALLS is the story of Conor, whose mother has
cancer, and who is in denial about its severity. Beautifully told, it weaves
the surface story with magical realism – the large yew tree that comes to life
outside his bedroom window and plagues his nights, with its ultimate symbolism
of healing. But the yew isn’t THE monster of this book. That is something Conor
has dreamed, but won’t face – and we’re not told what it is. You might think,
as I did, that it would turn out to be the truth about his mother’s condition. . . but
it’s not. It’s more tender, and raw, and less pat than that. And a reminder
that all monsters, if faced, can hold an invaluable gift.

Can you tell
I loved this book? Love love loved. I’m awed. Inspired. What a kick into a new
writing year!

I have a
feeling it's going to be a monstrously good one.

A very HAPPY 2014 to one and all!

(*At time of posting, said local indie is heralding the imminent arrival of Bad Kitty to the store. Regrettably, this is not me.)

Friday, October 25, 2013

Halloween is creeping up again. All
Hallows Eve. The night when spirits, ’tis said, can cross freely from their
world into ours. Rattling chains, or their bones. Shivering our timbers.
Chilling our spines. Spooking us out. Or at least giving us the chance to dress
up as skeletons, zombies, ghosts and ghouls,
and make light of the dark side.

With its damp, musty castle, spiders,
bats and generous dollop of scare, The
Flame in the Mist could have been written especially for this time of year.
It wasn’t, but still, I thought what a perfect time it would be to celebrate
both. A match made in heaven! (Yes, heaven. Not that other place of fire and
brimstone. Because even though the book has a high spook factor, there is light at the end of its darkest
hour.)

So I decided to do a mini blog
tour. Six lovely participants jumped
in, and I’ll be stopping by with them over the next days, up through the 31st. The tour kicks off today* – full
schedule below – and the first post has just gone live!

I hope you have as much fun reading the posts as I had putting them together with each host. AND - there's a giveaway! You could win a signed hard cover copy of The Flame in the Mist (U.S. / Canada) or an e-book (international.) You'll find the Rafflecopter entry at all the stops (except for The Lucky 13s).

Monday, October 28th: IceyBooks: Interview with main character Jemma. Who, by the way, doesn't know what Halloween is. Why would she? She lived it... (P.S. Noodle and Pie put in an appearance
too).

Tuesday, October 29th: On Emily’s Bookshelf: Review of The Flame in the Mist.
As I'm updating the links every day, I can add here that Emily hasn't just posted one review, but two! Her 9-year-old sister loved the book...And both of them gave it 5/5 stars. Guess who's doing an interrobang-worthy happy dance?!

Wednesday, October 30th:Literary Rambles: Guest post –
Marketing a debut kidlit novel: Tips for Nervous Newbies. Some hints on overcoming newbie jitters, as well as a run-down of what kind of events an author can arrange.

Thursday, October 31st: The Lucky 13s: Interview with Laura Golden*** – How the
Agromonds would Celebrate Halloween. Or...would they? Laura rocked the interview questions - and the Agromonds jumped in with their own answers.

**Amie Borst, who hosted me on The
Mixed Up Files, has a brand new book releasing on the 26th, written
with her daugher Bethanie.Titled Cinderskella, it’s suitably
creepy-sounding! Read Amie’s post about it here.

***Laura is the author of one of my
favorite new reads of 2013, a middle grade historical novel called Every Day After.
Do check her and her book out too!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

I’ve always loved to immerse my imagination in the past,
particularly medieval through Tudor times. Being English, I grew up absorbing
the evidence of lives gone by: castles, manor houses, half-timbered cottages,
churches, museums displaying everything from jewels to pots and pans, letters
and books. Ancient bones are buried everywhere—even those of kings, ’neath
parking lots*. On the darker side, any tourist can visit places like the Tower
of London with its stocks, rack, ax, and other delightful remnants of bygone
justice.

Uses
for Rotten Food

So when it came to writing The Flame in the Mist – a medieval-flavored fantasy – the setting
of a parallel version of Olde Englande was a no-brainer. True to history,
there’s a castle, thatched cottages, and a general sense of the muddy
unwashedness of jerkins, boots and breeches that the huddled masses wore back
then. Tapestries adorn the walls of the evil rulers’ castle. People travel in
carts and carriages, or on horseback. And casting its glow over everything is
their one source of heat and light: fire.

This, to me, is probably the most evocative feature of
medieval life. How did flame-light affect mood and tempers? Get up on a dark
winter’s morning and light a candle or lamp rather than flicking a switch;
there’s a stillness, a beauty, that the hard glare of a light bulb snatches
away. The glow of flame hazes a face in a beautiful way, adding warmth and
softness, instilling calm and commanding patience—something you’d need for the
slower pace of pre-electric life. Imagine, for example, having to wait for
water to boil on a fire or stove – bucketsful of it, if you wanted a bath – and
the time it would take to light every torch of a dark corridor, every candle of
a chandelier.

But while flame imbues the world with an air of tranquil,
magical mystery, paradoxically—and wonderfully, for the historical author—it
also ramps up drama and intrigue. Shadows and light dance off walls; dark
corners hide lurking dangers; silhouetted figures wait in ambush. The
mysterious becomes a threat, sparking deep, primal fears in our beleagured
characters. There’s no phone for them to call for help, no alarm button, no
battery-powered torch, even, to search out and reveal a would-be assailant.

As readers and writers, we can always close the book on our
heroes and heroines, abandoningthem to their dark ages while we scurry back to the 21st
century in a blaze of fluorescence. But what if we couldn’t? What would it
really have been like to live such a life, with only one’s wits to depend on,
and only a lamp to light one’s way? I’m back to square one, immersing my
imagination in new, historically-flavored fantasy ventures. But much as I enjoy rambling through Olde England, I’m glad I’m not
actually there, huddled in the cold and scratching away with my quill by flickering candlelight. That, I’ll leave to my
characters.

*In August 2012, the skeleton of King Richard III was found under a
parking lot in Leicester, England.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

I’ve been
meaning to post events here for a while, and what better time to get around to
it than on the cusp of the Summer Solstice, and my first hometown book signing
the following day? That’s THIS SATURDAY, June 22nd, from 1 to 4 pm. I'll be perched outside the store with table and books, 100 yards or so from Starbucks. (That's not a hint. Ok, it is.)

When I look at this list...well, I’m gawping.
Three months ago, my in-person calendar was blank and I was quaking at the
prospect of the next inevitable stage of Life as a Published Author (bar holing up in my writer's cave with an infinite amount of chocolate treats). Now, with 5 book signings and 5 presentations already
under my belt, I can’t wait to do more!

So, below is
the next leg...so far. Thanks for dropping by, and please feel free to comment—I love reading what you have to say!

Wow. Wow! Wow...That's almost until Christmas. And I've barely started booking school events for the Fall. Watch this space...

I’m so
grateful for every opportunity to meet children’s book lovers of all ages—especially
the kids—and to take The Flame in the Mist out into the world. Without the camaraderie of various local author groups like the fabulous Kidlit Authors Club, who invited
me into their midst, this list wouldn’t be half as long. So Thank you, thank you, thank you to my
fellow authors for your energy and enthusiasm, as well as to the wonderful event
organizers at the bookstores, libraries and schools that host us, and who are so willing to go the extra mile to help us out.

About Me

I'm Kit, I'm English, and live in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., with my husband. I love sea, sun, mountains, chocolate, sushi and music. I've written songs for a living for most of my adult life, and made some records along the way. I wrote my first book when I was 9. It was bad. The Flame in the Mist is a lot better...and there will be more!